No Sleep Weekend: Padova, Venice & Verona

Ciao Stranger,

I think I've finally recuperated from last weekend. I'm been dreading writing this blog because I know it's going to be take me half a day just writing it all out. So without further ado, here's my adventure from last weekend...

All great stories have a good beginning, and so mine began with me waking up at...oh wait, I didn't sleep the night before because I had to leave at 5 AM and I wasn't tired till 3 AM and by then, I was afraid if I slept, I wouldn't be able to wake up for my trip. Hence a great beginning of a trip. Let's just say the second I sat down on the bus, I passed out and 6 hours later, a bus full of cranky vampire looking creatures crawled into the hotel. I threw my bags down, put on my sunglasses and went out feeling like a rock star (thank you oversized shades). Here's a picture of Arlette and moi eating our sandwiches at the biggest piazza in Italy.

We got a tour around the city of Padova and went into the Basilica of St. Anthony which belongs to The Vatican. Yes, apparently St. Peter's isn't the only Vatican church, there's 3 or 4 other ones out there. Don't hold me to it, I wasn't paying too much attention to the tour guide. I was still sleep deprived so I could've been hallucinating, who knows. This is what one section of the church's interior looks like. The glass encasements holds various gold items and if I'm not wrong...I saw St. Anthony's teeth as well. He needed some dental work. It was very odd. I don't know, don't ask me.

Padova is about a 40 min train ride away from Venice, who was having their annual carnival so the streets were all selling decorative face masks. Question is...which one to get?

 Why did I take a picture of this balcony? Oh, no reason really. I just thought it would be nice to take a picture of where Galileo used to live. Imagine him sitting there looking up into the night sky.

And this is...Italians standing around on the street! Stunning.
No but apparently when an Italian graduates from university, they celebrate this milestone moment by making you dress up in a hideous costume and all your friends will post your most embarrassing moments/stories/pictures up on a wall out in the open where others are free to read and laugh at you. I don't know what kind of celebration this is but it sounds absolutely dreadful. All your worst moments plastered on a wall for everyone to see. No thank you.

Our dinner that night. I haven't had chicken in so long...it was so satisfying. Also, I didn't see the water so I got the beer, don't judge me.

While others went out to party, I decided to take it easy and went to a bar with some friends for a chill night out. When we were leaving it started to rain, and none of us had brought an umbrella, so an hour of walking in the rain and this was the result. 

Next morning, we woke up to a gloomy day with spasms of shower attacks. I didn't care that my shoes were wet, that it was pouring outside, that it's windy and half the group evolved from vampires to zombies since they were all hungover. I was going to Venice, a place I've only dreamed of going to when I was young. I couldn't stop snapping pictures left and right because everything was so damn gorgeous. We tried to find different synonyms for beautiful but it didn't get very far: for pretty much all the other exchange students, English is not their first language so I've found that when I talk to them, I've had to consistently use simple English vocabulary to communicate. I predict that by the end of my exchange, my level of Italian will not have increased by much but my proficiency in English will have dropped by 60%. I will worry about that later, but for now, here's a "beautiful" picture of Venice.

 Look at the number of tourists. When it was raining people were having umbrella poking wars.

 For lunch we had this deep fried ham and cheese sandwich. Taste? Meh. 5/10. Edible but not particularly enjoyable.

 Overpriced gondolas! I've only seen you in movies. It's nice to know you actually exist in real life. Maybe one day I'll be able to ride in you, hopefully not alone. That might be slightly sad.

 You may think it's odd for us to be wearing masks but everyone had them on. Made me feel like a kid again :) I would just like to clarify that I did not turn into a ball of mozzarella, at least not yet. I borrowed a friend's sweater because mine was still drenched from the night before and he's about 2 feet taller than me. Let's just say the whole oversized sweater look did not work in my favour that day.

St. Mark's Basilica, the most famous church in Venice for its Byzantine architecture and is known as the "Church of Gold". Doesn't sound impressive? There's over 200 churches in Venice so think again.

Picture of some of my favourite exchange friends in Piazza San Marco. This never happens when I'm in Vancouver but here, I'm the designated photographer always telling everyone to gather up for pictures. Rena, aren't you proud of me? I'm the new you!

We walked all over the city, from island to island until we couldn't feel our legs any more. One word of advice: Venice is doable as a 1-2 days trip, so don't plan to stay there for a week unless you just have a lot of time to kill and enjoy overcrowded tourists. Before going to Venice, I had no idea what to expect. Sure I'd been to the Venetian hotel in Vegas multiple times before but nothing could prepare me for the real thing. It's definitely one of the most romantic cities I've ever seen. I will undoubtedly come back again when the weather gets nicer, and maybe by then, I'll have someone to bring with me ;)

Went for pizza and wine in the late evening and then headed to a ESN party where schools all over Italy gathered at a rented factory site to party HARD. The night can be summed up with drinking, dancing, singing, puking and sleeping. 

Congratulations, we have now transformed from zombies to a bus full of pregnant women: uncontrollable whining and constant sleepiness. In other words, we were a lovely bunch to be around. The city of the day was Verona, well known as the setting for Shakesprear's Romeo and Juliet. Behind me is a smaller version of the Colosseum, and is the 3rd largest arena in Italy. 

Scenic Piazza delle Erbe. Verona is by far the cleanest city I've been to in Italy. This is a city I can picture myself settling down in when I'm in my 50s. There's a drastic shortage of tourists compared to Venice, it's got a river for that sense of serenity and people in general are nicer (you can tell just by looking at the way people drive).

"Michelle. Another balcony? Really???" This is known as Juliet's Balcony. Now try to jam through your memory back to grade 9 when we did this play in class. This courtyard was overcrowded, and you could pay 6 euros to go up on the balcony. Psh, like I would waste that kind of money on a balcony, a picture down here is fine for me.

OoOoOoOoOo. Beautiful! This is exactly what I imagined Europe to be like. Score! Snap snap snap.

No tourists other than us roaming off away from the downtown area. I think part of my love for the city may have something to do with the fact that it was a stunning day out. See? Not a cloud in the sky. Now why couldn't the day before have been like this too?

All in all, it was a great weekend filled with much excitement. 3 phenomenal cities later, I was ready to go home and see my Italian room mates and warm comfy bed.